Is Anthem Exiting the Obamacare Exchanges? The Trump Administration Needs to Decide if They Are In or Out

Bloomberg is out with a report that Anthem may exit most of their Obamacare exchange markets next year:

Anthem, Inc. is likely to pull back from Obamacare’s individual insurance markets in a big way for next year, according to a report from analysts who said they met with the company, a move that could limit coverage options for consumers at a politically crucial time for the law.

Trump and the GOP Should Face It: There's Only One Option Left to Fix Health Care

I've been saying for years that Obamacare will never be "repealed and replaced," but it will have to be fundamentally fixed, and that fix will inevitably have to be bipartisan.

But with the developments of the past week, I learned something new: Trump and the Republican leadership are ideologically closer to most Democrats than they are to their own far right wing in the House and Senate.

See my post at CNBC.com

Will President Trump Sign a New Health Insurance Bill in 2017?

See my comments on CNBC

Let’s Not Let the Republicans Make the Obamacare Replacement Debate About the Congressional Budget Office—Fewer People Will Be Covered and Many Will See Big Cost Increases

If you carve a huge chunk of revenue out of Obamacare and shift more subsidies to the middle class it should not be a surprise that the lower income folks will pay the price

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that 14 million of people would lose coverage in 2018, 21 million in 2020, and 24 million in 2026 if the House Republican plan is allowed to significantly amend the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare).

In my last post, I called the House Republican bill "mind boggling" for the negative impact I believe it would have on the number of those uninsured and the viability of the individual insurance market. Guess the CBO agrees with me.

The CBO's report came after the Brookings Institute estimated 15 million people would lose Medicaid and individual health insurance coverage at the end of ten years under the Republican plan. The arguably more business oriented S&P Global estimated between 6 million and 10 million people would lose coverage between 2020 and 2024.

Republicans are jumping on the CBO estimate reminding us that the CBO’s Obamacare projections haven’t been perfect in the past.

This is not the issue.

What Republicans are proposing, and how those proposals will impact how many people have insurance in this country, is the issue.

The House Republican Obamacare Replacement Plan: Mind Boggling

It won't work.

Obamacare works for the poorest that have affordable health insurance because all of the program's subsidies tilt in their favor.

Obamacare doesn't work well for the working and middle class who get much less support––particularly those who earn more than 400% of the federal poverty level, who constitute 40% of the population and don't get any help.

Because so many don't do well under the law, only about 40% of the subsidy eligible have signed up and, with so many insurers losing lots of money, the scheme is not financially sustainable because not enough healthy people are on the rolls to pay for the sick.

To fix it, House Republicans are proposing a very attractive program for the better off and, with the Medicaid rollback, gutting the program for the poor to be able to pay for it.

The Cockroach Proposal––Selling Insurance Across State Lines

I call support for giving insurance companies the ability to sell insurance across state lines the cockroach proposal.

As bad as it is, you just can't kill the damn thing!

Last night, President Trump once again listed this idea in his address to Congress as one of his health care talking points.

Here is a post about the idea I published on this blog a year ago in the midst of the Republican presidential primary:

Any candidate that suggests such a scheme only shows how unsophisticated he and his advisers are when it comes to understanding how the insurance markets really work––or could work. 

I gave a speech to 750 health insurance brokers and consultants in DC last week.

When selling health insurance across state lines, something Trump and a number of other Republican presidential candidates have been pushing, was mentioned the audience literally laughed. That's what health insurance professionals who spend their days in the market think of it!